Last week I received a call from a former student to come bring the family to see Disney’s Beauty and the Beast at Wohlfahrt Haus Dinner Theatre in Wytheville. She is currently in the cast, and so—okay. I admit Disney musicals aren’t my theatrical cup of tea, but we love her, so we went. I also admit I can be a bit critical when it comes to theater because that’s my background—oh alright, I can be ruthlessly critical. Dinner theater in SWVA? I wasn’t expecting much.

The worse part about going to see a friend in a show is that afterwards you have to see them and say something. What if you didn’t like it? What if the show was just horrific or worse yet—their performance? “That was interesting”, only goes so far.

My worries were unfounded. Man, was I pleasantly surprised! The quality of Wohlfahrt’s production was above anything I’d seen in a dinner theater production. But the performances were extraordinary. Fabulous voices across the board, engaging choreography and well trained dancers. These actors aren’t second rate because they’re not in New York—they are top tier, building their resumes while sharing their talents. The set was well done considering this is a large scale Disney/Broadway musical scaled down to a smaller stage. I was impressed all the way around. Disney’s Beauty and the Beast plays through June 15th, Smokey Joe’s Café opens next.

This production was a grand example of what I often tell people; art happens in the mountains.

I didn’t have dinner so I can’t report on the food, but if it’s theatrical art you want—get thee to Wohlfahrt Haus Dinner Theatre.

- Lucinda McDermott Piro

Every small town has its hub; the place where you get the dirt. The scoop. The whole enchilada. In Radford, it’s the Vintage Cellar. On Friday’s they have beer and a few wines to sample; “beer education” they call it. . . and on Saturdays, they have a nice line-up of approximately 5 to 8 wines. My husband, dog, and I have a standing date on Saturday afternoons to walk downtown for a little wine tasting and to catch up on the news you won’t find in the local paper. Okay—some might call it gossip. But it’s all with good intentions! And no, my dog is not a wine connoisseur. Chuck, the manager of the Radford Vintage Cellar always has his pup Abby with him. We bring our pooch Decaf down, and the two have a play date. I’m pretty sure this can only happen in a small town and maybe, well, Paris. Decaf looks forward to this weekly event, and when we’re a block from the store, he suddenly loses his ability to “heel”. We basically fly into the store. We dare not go in without Decaf. A couple of weeks ago we went in sans canine and Abby gave us murderous looks the entire time. Kind of took the joy out of the Les Agapes.

Back to the hub. Two years ago I ran a multi-arts summer workshop called ArtsXtreme on the campus of Radford University. I was having a heck of a time finding a music teacher, and happened to mention that as I was tasting wine one Saturday at the Cellar. Within 8 minutes Chuck had a friend of his on the phone with me, a music graduate student who was perfect for the job. I’ve seen real estate transactions, business partnerships initiate, and the courtship of Chuck and his beautiful wife Stephanie transpire in our little wine shop. Last year Chuck and Steph actually got married in the store.

Every town needs a hub. Does yours?

- Lucinda McDermott Piro

The Museum of the Middle Appalachians has opened its museum expansion this past month. The expansion was fueled by the interest in the regions geological presence in salt. The new exhibit, like many others at the museum, talks about the history of the area. The museum offers many educational opportunities for students here in the region. This is due to the wide range of topics about Southwest Virginia that the museum touches on. They range from geology to the ice age, all with timelines and/or pictures that show some history of the area at those times. The museum is great for a school planned field trip or just a short weekend trip. You will get to learn more about how things used to be and how this area has evolved into what it is today.

My Name is Jerrid Morelen I am currently a junior at Radford University. I am majoring in economics as well as finance. My hometown Is Chesapeake Virginia, I graduated from Great Bridge High School in 2005. I am aspiring to be a financial advisor for Merrill Lynch and maybe someday open up my own firm.

-Jerrid Morelen

My mother, sisters, and brother live at the Outer Banks. But I bet none of them stepped foot on a beach more than half a dozen times in the past year. One of my sisters probably hasn’t stuck toe in sand in several years.

Pathetic.

But when was the last time I took a hike in the mountains? Been a while. Although I’ve been tubing, and canoing, I have yet to raft the New River. My son and daughter have never been fishing. I think that’s criminal.

Now is a great time to hit the city and National Parks. There are ten state parks in SWVA alone.
You can also try (http://www.poremsky.net/swvapark.html) as a resource for parks to visit. The song birds are out, and the plant life is incredible. I was walking down by the New River in Bisset Park yesterday and spied some gold finches, a blue bird, geese, and other water fowl that were moving too darn fast and evidently didn’t want to be recognized. Wildwood Park is a great place for identifying area wildflowers. A couple books I like to use are Wildflowers in Color by Arthur Stupka, and Wildflowers of the Shenandoah Valley and Blue Ridge Mountains by Oscar W. Gupton and Fred C. Swope. For bird watching try Birds of North America, with the Golden Field Guide series.

I recently flew to Michigan on a business trip. Michigan is a beautiful state, but boy, is it flat. As we landed in the bowl of the Roanoke Valley, I was reminded of the rich visual landscape we live in. And it’s right here in my own back yard.

-Lucinda McDermott Piro

One of my favorite scenes from Elf with Will Farrell is when he takes his love interest to Chock Full-a Nuts in New York City to have what is advertised as The World’s Best Coffee—and she does a spit take. I use to live in NYC and admit that I too have been a victim of this false advertising.

However! Right here in Southwest Virginia we’ve got a secret. Are you listening? We’ve got the world’s best coffee. Dark Hollow Micro Roasters in Sugar Grove, VA is owned and operated by a husband and wife team who, after much research and traveling to globe, settled in Southwest Virginia to roast delicious fresh, organic, and fair trade java. I heard John speak at an Entrepreneur Express Workshop in Marion, VA not too long ago, and found his story to be quite compelling. So compelling that I had to try this coffee. I scolded him for not bringing samples after speaking so convincingly about his product! Didn’t catch his last name and their website is still under construction. But I did stop at a store on the way home and bought a pound of the blend Cowboy Up! ($8.65) which I highly recommend. You can purchase the coffee from the website.

Hopefully, John will flesh out the “About Us” section of his website because it’s a great tale of following one’s passion. Virginia’s Great Southwest is fertile ground for entrepreneurships, and there are so many avenues of support in SWVA for small business owners either through the Entrepreneur Express Workshops offered through Virginia Start Up or through the Virginia Department of Business Assistance. The workshops impressed me with how much useful information is offered for free to new business or potential business owners. Southwest Virginia opens its arms to the small business owner and is willing to give a leg up in many ways. Come on down!

-Lucinda McDermott Piro

Okay—I know we’ve all complained about the rising cost of gas. . . but COME ON! This morning I could not believe my dependable, “cheap” gas station listed regular at $3.39! What!? Two days ago it was $3.27. 12 cents in two days? Incredible. I called my husband. “Go to the Citgo between Long John Silvers and Burger King! It’s still $3.27! Got it. I pulled a U-ee and slid into the Citgo. Okay. . . they didn’t take credit cards at the pump, but no matter. I felt like I had found the Holy Grail. I prepared the “thank you” I was going to give the cashier, applauding them on their wherewithal and courage to stand up against the evil OPEC. In my head I was composing the e-mail I would forward to my friends; GO TO CITGO ON ROUTE 11 BY THE BURGER KING! Oh wait till I tell the owner how I will express my gratitude via the power of word of mouth! I’ll be a valued customer!

I entered the store, passing the Skoal display (it was on sale too). I handed over my credit card and began my speech. “Thank you so much for daring to keep your prices down. I so appreciate—”

“You’re lucky. We’re right in the middle of raising them.”

“But. . . . ” Any normal person would have just stopped. But no… For some reason, I thought that I would make a difference by lauding their efforts with three syllable words and yes, I did mention that e-mail.

They could have cared less.

Heartbroken, I had yet another revelation.

I spoke with a friend of mine who lives in Tidewater. Price of regular there today? $3.11. WHAT!? Our gas is more expensive!? Now what kind of sense does that make? Okay, everything else is cheaper here. And I guess in the end it is all relative. I was doing a cost of living comparison with Boston and nearly everything was doubled in price there except beer and pizza. Beer and pizza are cheaper in Boston than in Southwest Virginia. And there you have it: three of life’s necessities: gas, beer, pizza.

-Lucinda McDermott Piro

Like some might think, Southwest Virginia is nothing but a bunch of farms, land, and nothing to do. I will admit that I was ONCE one of those people. I am originally from Chesapeake, VA. where there are things and events going on all the time. I am close to the beach, am surrounded by numerous restaurants, and have an array of options when it comes to finding “something to do.” I am now a senior at Radford University, and people still ask me “Why did you decide to go there? There’s nothing to do in that area!” I’m not going to lie, coming to SWVA from the coast was a big change; but not necessarily a bad one.

As I said before I am a senior at RU and have been playing soccer all four of my years here. Playing soccer and participating in extracurricular activities has given me the opportunity to travel to different states as well as to the many different areas of the SWVA region. Blacksburg has a great main street that is filled with a variety of shops and restaurants. Even though some of the restaurants look small and pretty much like “a hole in the wall,” you would be surprised on how amazing their food really is. The stores and shops are great and you can find things that you wouldn’t normally find in a larger suburban area. One word can describe Christiansburg, “unlimited.” Talk about restaurants; I can name 10 right off the top of my head. There is a mall, a Wal-mart, Target!, I mean what else do you need? Harrisonburg is also “blowing up” per se. For outdoorsy people, there are countless amounts of parks, hiking trails, and beautiful sites to see that you certainly couldn’t get or endure being in a city where you are surrounded by nothing but buildings. With an abundance of things to do, why do people still hold this everlasting thought that Southwest Virginia is a bunch of “nothing”? And trust me, I haven’t even come close to naming everything that this region has to offer. Seriously, not even close.

Being a young adult and living life to the fullest, I can see myself reaching my goals and enjoy doing so in Southwest Virginia.

My name is Chelsea Archer and I am currently a senior at Radford University. I have played soccer all four years for my school and I love to just hang out with my friends. I’ll be graduating in May with a degree in Communication and will be returning to Radford next year to finish my Master’s degree in Corporate and Professional Communication.

Teenagers.

Does the phrase raise the hair on your neck? Unpleasant memories? Current fears?

My husband and I have been working with the youth group at our church for the last couple of years—actually, with another parishioner, we started the group because, being a small church, there wasn’t one. Sunday School stopped after the 6th grade and we realized that a lot of the teens in the church were drifting away at a time when they probably needed an entity that could love and support them most. So we started Teens @ Grace, or T@G. None of us had any background in youth ministries. In fact, I would say all of us would be the last pick for such a venture. But we knew that the kids in our community needed something. There is no place in our town of Radford other than the library that is appropriate for teens to hang out and do the socializing that is so necessary to their social development. Okay—that sounds really antiseptic—but where can a teen go to be with other teens that is safe?

We started a teen club that would meet once a month called Club 210 (the address was 210 4th Street). High school garage bands could play there and we accepted a donation for a different charity each month. We converted the basement of the church to look as much like a club as we could; lights, stage, biggums speakers. . . When we could get the bands, it was a great evening and successful. Sadly, our lives have become busier and we can’t maintain the club as we did. I wish we could have the club going every week on a Friday night. Imagine if someone decided that for a business? Or how about the equivalent for a Chuckie Cheese for teens? In areas that have Books-A-Millions, and Barnes and Nobles, I hear the teens hang out there. Malls become a gathering place, but because of that many have curfews for anyone 18 and under without a parent have been imposed. One of my freshmen college students was kicked out of a Roanoke mall recently because she was 18 and with friends.

Does your community have a safe and appropriate place for teens to socialize? Wouldn’t an investment like that symbolize an investment of the community’s future?

We were able to arrange a rebuilding mission trip to New Orleans last year, and are planning another trip this summer. For the past three years the T@G kids have collected toys for a local Christmas toy charity, and they’ve done other helpful work in the community. I’ve watched some progress from sullen, seemingly apathetic bystanders to a step-in-and-take-charge helper. I saw perspectives change before my eyes when we entered New Orleans and they realized how truly blessed they were. I saw the light of understanding turn on when one fifteen year old heard a single mother tell of life for her and her three teenage children in a small FEMA trailer. These evolutions are stunningly beautiful to me, and I’m quite proud to have played a part. It’s one of the reasons I came back home to a smaller area—to be able to engage in something bigger than myself.

So I highly recommend engaging with the children in your community in some way. There’s no better investment. After all, they ARE the future.

-Lucinda McDermott Piro

One of my fondest childhood memories is going with my Dad to the hardware store. Actually, in Glasgow, Virginia, the hardware store was also the general store. If you were lucky enough to have lived long enough to have a memory of life before Home Depot and Lowe’s, then you know what I’m talking about.

First, there’s the building. Two or three steps up on worn treads that went the length of the structure. A narrow porch and through two tall windowed doorways into a darkened and deep space that seemed to stretch out to forever with shelves and shelves of everything you would ever possibly need. And ahhhhh! the smell… Sawdust, nails, sweet feed, seeds and tobacco. I remember the bins of nails and screws. They looked so luscious! I wanted to sink my hands into them, cupping the nails as if they were water but OUCH! These stores were tactile. They were sensory-overload potential. They were warm, and people knew your name and offered you an ice cream sandwich or nutty-buddy from the freezer. You could get what you needed to mend the fence and cook dinner all at the same time.

Blue tin cookware and overalls. Painter pants and aprons. Canned goods and saws. Wrenches and ceramic depictions of Jesus. A round of rat cheese next to pickled pigs’ feet and Slim Jims. Old men in rockers on the front porch; “My, my, look at how you’ve grown! Good golly, Billy Mac, she’s a weed!”

Where are those stores now? Where are those places where our beloved senior citizens can rock and keep an eye on the community? Do we honor them with a front row seat in our towns, or do we hide them away in politely titled places like “Senior Centers”?

Do we have stores or community places where it is safe for children to congregate with kids their own age, or to interact meaningfully with other generations? Do we make the children in our community feel welcomed or valued on a daily basis?

In our effort to grow Southwest Virginia, are we making the effort to retain what makes us unique?

-Lucinda McDermott Piro

If God forbade drinking, would He have made wine so good?
–Cardinal Richeleu

What to do for a wedding anniversary? It was a beautiful day. We didn’t want to be inside; we wanted access to food, wine, and song. Something beautiful, something romantic yet casual, not too fancy, accessible (meaning within an hour’s drive), and most important—affordable!

My daughter actually made the suggestion; “Why don’t you go to Château Morrisette?” BINGO! So I checked out the website and it just so happened that there was music on the lawn, and the lawn grill would be open. We packed up the blanket and headed toward Floyd. Then 45 minutes later, a glass of wine, sandwiches, a great singer/guitarist and time alone with the love of my life. Later we spread a blanket and watched the clouds morph in and out of formations framed by the Blue Ridge Mountains. We meandered on the Parkway (http://www.virginia.org/site/features.asp?featureid=183) and took some divine photos to document the moment. What don’t we do this more often? It’s like people I know who live at the beach and never take time to walk beside the ocean. What’s up with that?

Wine is bottled poetry.
–Robert Louis Stevenson

Its spring and that means concerts and tastings at local wineries! If you haven’t been to a winery tour and tasting . . . you’ve missed a very affordable good time. Virginia is one of the leading states in a growing wine industry. In 1979, there were only six wineries, but today our state can boast of more than 100! A September 2007 article in Travel and Leisure heralded Virginia Wineries as a rich undiscovered tourism secret. (http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/virginia-unbridled/). I say it’s time to let the cat out of the bag!

Wine gives courage and makes men more apt for passion.
–Ovid

In and around Southwest Virginia there are 15 wineries listed on the Virginia Wines website (http://www.virginiawines.org/wineries/r-southwestern.html). Many of these wineries have either a restaurant or café connected with them, and feature events during the weekend. You don’t have to be of drinking age or even a wine drinker to enjoy what the wineries offer. Many are family run, built from the bottom up with not much more than a passionate dream. It’s a great thing to do with family or friends from out of town. Just go to a website and check out their events!

It is well to remember that there are five reasons for drinking: the arrival of a friend; one’s present or future thirst; the excellence of the wine; or any other reason.
–Latin saying

Often at the tastings it will be the owner doing the pouring, who can talk to you about the history and lore of the vineyard. I’ve discovered that there’s a lot more to wine than what ends up in my glass. Which is always half full. How ’bout yours?

I like best the wine drunk at the cost of others.
–Diogenes the Cynic
He who loves not wine, women and song remains a fool his whole life long.
–Martin Luther, 1777

Wineries at a glance:

Villa Appalachia - Great events. You could see this winery and Château Morrisette in one day. http://www.villaappalaccia.com/events.html

Amrhein Wines, Bent Mountain, VA. They have a chardonnay that’s a perfect summer sippin’ wine. You’ll find a lot of music events at their site (http://www.amrheinwinecellars.com/).

Davis Winery and Vineyard in Rural Retreat list a couple of events coming up. (http://www.dvwinery.com/)

Hands down, you’ll find a variety of music, film, and theatre happening at Château Morrisette (http://www.chateaumorrisette.com/). It wouldn’t be a bad idea for the other regional wineries to take a cue and generate some healthy competition along those lines.

–Lucinda McDermott Piro